Friday, August 22, 2008

All seats still available for season tickets will be marked with checkered flags ready for you to take for a spin. You can take one – or 21! – for a test drive and then decide which seat will give you the perfect view to experience the best of Broadway next season. The 2008-2009 Bank of America Best of Broadway Tampa Bay series includes The Wizard of Oz, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Spring Awakening, A Chorus Line, Frost/Nixon, The Rat Pack – Live at the Sands, Fiddler on the Roof and Waist Watchers, The Calorie-Free Musical.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Embedded is on stage now in the Shimberg Playhouse through Aug. 31. Check out the reviews that have published in the past two days. Follow the links for the full articles:

" ... the play is harsh, unrelenting, at times grotesque and exceedingly refreshing. In a more perfect universe, every city would have a theater troupe that performed plays like Embedded every time there was a national crisis ... See it before the Constitution goes the way of the Geneva Conventions ... If you don't believe that the live theater can be a potent political instrument, see this play and change your mind." - Creative Loafing

"Jobsite Theat[er] could not have picked a finer show than "Embedded" to close out the 2007-08 season. Written by Tim Robbins, this was, by far, Jobsite's best production ... "Embedded" is a creative, original and intelligent play that lingers long after the curtain goes down." - The Tampa Tribune

"... the script and the production both fare best during the very human vignettes ... A touching opening scene has soldiers saying goodbye to their loved ones as they go off to war. One of the few ethical reporters, played appealingly by Meg Heimstead, recounts with fear and sadness an errant bomb attack. A fictionalized account of the Jessica Lynch story, with a poignant performance by Betty-Jane Parks, is perhaps the show's most profound and effective anti-war statement ... Some of the best acting comes during those repeated segments with the presidential advisers. Even though the actors' faces are hidden behind masks ... their gestures are phenomenally evocative." - St. Pete Times

And for those interested, here's the TV spot:

Full disclosure: I am also the Producing Artistic Director of Jobsite and one of the co-directors of the show.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Because of the threat from Fay, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center has canceled the Tuesday, Aug. 19, 7:30 p.m., performance of Mamma Mia!

TBPAC staff members will contact ticketholders to move their tickets into another one of this week’s performances of Mamma Mia! The show runs through Sunday, Aug. 24.

If there is a price difference between the original seats and the new ones, patrons will be refunded the difference through their original point and method of purchase.

True to the old showbiz motto “the show must go on,” it is anticipated that performances will fully resume on Wednesday, Aug. 20. The Ticket Office is scheduled to open at noon that day and can be contacted at 813.229.STAR (7827) or 800.955.1045.

A decision will be made later this evening on whether the TBPAC Ticket Office and administrative offices will be open on Tuesday.

For more information about this cancellation and the remaining performances of Mamma Mia! at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, please visit TBPAC.ORG.

Mamma Mia! Student Rush: Get 50% off tickets to the Tue. - Thu. Mamma Mia! performances. This offer is valid as of 90 minutes to curtain on up to 2 tickets by presenting your student ID at the TBPAC Ticket Office window. Excludes price level 1. Not valid on prior sales or in conjunction with any other offer. Sorry, no rain checks.